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Suggestology,
Suggestopedy, and Ethics
By Balthazaar
While
I enjoyed Colin Rose' first book, Accelerated Learning, I was alarmed
with its lack of concern about the abuses of the power of suggestion. I
mean, even Hitler could have used suggestopedy negatively, were it available
back then. (Indeed, Hitler did use
such suggestive techniques as intonation, authority, gesture, histrionics, and dramatic props like searchlights--I
wonder if he'd read Dale Carnegie?)
In
Rose' new book, written with Malcolm J. Nicholl, Accelerated Learning
for the 21st Century, he and Nicholl discuss a lot of fine ideas for
upgrading humanity and the education system. They also discuss morality.
And yet, on pages 147-149, to my amazement, they insert a passage on "negotiation"--a
technique that is obviously a form of manipulation, or could be. (One is
instructed to deliberately "wince" in bargaining situations!) They don't
even discuss the morality of such manipulation. Nor do they make a distinction
between assertiveness training and outright manipulation techniques.
Since
the 1930's when Dale Carnegie first wrote How to Win Friends and Influence
(i.e.,
suggest) People, a book that also contains certain manipulative
techniques that could be used immorally, dozens of books and courses have
been written, invented and marketed to show people how to manipulate others;
to get what one wants. Even Reverend Peale's The Power of Positive Thinking
(i.e., autosuggesting) is open to potential abuse by those with a greedy,
me-first, self-interest type psychology.
Visualisation
techniques such as those by Gawain or Silva Mind Control, for example,
are all open to potential abuse because they don't, in my opinion at least,
have very strong ethical or moral systems to ensure all that visualisation
and autosuggestion is virtuous. Lozanov said that the suggestologist must
be of impeccable character and have a deep love and respect for his fellow
man.
And
yet Ostrander & Schroeder's Superlearning suggested using ESP
to be "a fly on the wall". No discussion of invasion of privacy! Silva
apparently used ESP of some sort to win the lottery. If so, was it fair
to the other players who paid their money, in good faith, expecting an
equal chance at winning? Is it moral to win at a lottery by peeking at
the winning ticket number when other people can't? Is it right to read
another person's mind, without their knowledge or consent? To diagnose
their private medical conditions unbeknown to them?
Psychic
phenomena aside, I hope wise readers will agree that there are dangers
in using suggestion (and visualisation, intuition and the subconscious
mind) without having a strong moral structure. (A famous boxer used autosuggestion
to "win", to be "the greatest", and he did excell marvellously, but is
punch-drunk now!) Granted, Rose, in his first book on accelerated learning,
did mention Wilson Bryan Key's book on subliminal advertising, but I'd
feel much safer with all the accelerated learning (suggestive) techniques
if they were grounded in virtue. Advertising (a form of waking state suggestion)
certainly isn't.
The
Yoga system from which Lozanov drew suggestopedy has a whole moral and
ethical structure attached to it. Accelerated learning, as a moral and
ethical system, is very deficient. Readers may be interested to read Professor
Suzuki's Zen Essays. The "Oxherding Pictures" seen therein are an
excellent illustration of how good automations can only occur if our autosuggestion
is virtuous.
Learning,
another name for autosuggestion, must be virtuous learning; otherwise negative
automations and actualisations will always ensue as a consequence.
Silva,
Gawain, and Napoleon Hill, for example, make perfunctory comments about
"karma", or something to that effect, but their autosuggestion methods,
as presented in their books, are potentially open to abuse and misunderstanding.
Same with the money-making visualisation methods (some part of shallow
new age religions) guaranteeing wealth, prosperity and health. They suggest
resources are infinite when they aren't. There isn't enough money and space,
on Earth, at least, for all humans to be rich, living in mansions, wearing
mink coats, having chests full of diamonds and jewels, and being waited
on hand and foot. Nor is there a cure for death. People such as Louise
Hay, who use suggestive methods to heal, seem to infer that illness is
only due to one's state of autosuggestion/thought. If so, how come even
Christian Scientists still die?
Accelerated
learning, surely, must have a moral and ethical system built into it if
the edifying benefits Lozanov hoped for are to be sustained?
Please
do not get me wrong, however. I am not saying that accelerated learning
should be a religion. There are fundamentalist "accelerated" Christian
schools that teach homophobia, for example, to their pupils via accelerated
learning methods. Religion and true virtue can be two different things.
I just wish to express my concern that suggestive techniques not be abused
in such a way as to be harmful to mankind, and, at present, that is still
clearly happening. One need only look at the advertising industry or media
and how they manipulate. From my point of view, I see it vital that virtue
and ethics be built into accelerated learning procedures.
It
may be better all round if it is decided that there is a ninth intelligence
after all, whether we call it spiritual, moral, or ethical intelligence.
Recommended Reading:
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Carnegie, Dale (1957)
How
to Develop Self-Confidence and Influence People by Public Speaking.
Great Britain: Cedar Books.
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Carnegie, Dale (1937)
How
to Win Friends and Influence People. Sydney: Angus & Robertson.
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Gawain, Shakti (1976)
Creative
Visualization. U.S.A.: Whatever Publishing Inc.
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Hill, Napoleon (1937)
Think
and Grow Rich. U.S.A.: Combined Registry Company.
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Hill, Napoleon and Stone,
W. Clement (1960) Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude. U.S.A.:
Prentice-Hall, Inc.
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Key, Wilson Bryan (1978)
Subliminal
Seduction. New York: New American Library.
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Lozanov, Georgi (1978)
Suggestology
and outlines of Suggestopedy. New York: Gordon and Breach.
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Ostrander, S., Schroeder,
L., and Ostrander, N. (1980) Superlearning. New York: Dell.
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Peale, Norman Vincent.
(1952) The Power of Positive Thinking. U.S.A.: Fawcett Publications.
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Rose, Colin (1985) Accelerated
Learning. Great Britain: Accelerated Learning Systems Ltd.
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Rose, Colin and Nicholl,
Malcolm J. (1997) Accelerated Learning for the 21st Century. New
York: Dell.
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Silva, J., and
Miele, P. (1980) The Silva Mind Control Method. London: Grafton.
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Suzuki, Dr. D. T. (1927,
1933, 1934) Essays in Zen Buddhism. 3 vols. London: Luzac.
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Suzuki, Dr. D. T. (1950)
Manual
of Zen Buddhism. London: Rider.
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